answers discussion questions and reply to classmates post. add additional insight to the response.
Discussion one 300 words
(Part 1) Discuss problems or issues in providing services to abused and neglected children. Discuss current attempts and possible solutions to address these issues. Defend your reasoning.
(Part 2) Identify and discuss what you believe to be the most important policy issue facing children today. Why do you think this policy issue is so important?
Reply 1 grady 60 words
Americans value individual responsibility along with the privacy of families, making it difficult to not only detect but be able to effectively respond to cases of child abuse and neglect. Many, if not most, cases go unreported. In spite of this, there have been many policy attempts to correct these issues. Federal policy on child abuse and neglect began in 1974 with the passage of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, which established mandated reporters in every state, which would include “health care providers, teachers, social workers, police officers, and foster care providers” (Segal, 2016, p. 309), that would serve as first responders to cases of child abuse. While this made for a systematic process to reporting and the gathering of statistics, intervening through foster care and adoption on cases of abuse and neglect was still imperfect. Foster care, which was meant to be a temporary solution, became a permanent intervention strategy, with “little effort… made to keep children in their own homes” and “disproportionate numbers of children of color (being placed) in foster care, and poverty… often (serving as) a precursor to foster care placement” (Segal, 2016, p. 311). In response to these issues, the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980 was passed, which created the strategy of permanency planning to ensure that foster care was simply a first step towards children returning to their families or being put up for adoption. More of the imperfections in the system were addressed in the ‘90s with passage of the Adoption and Safe Families Act and then the Keeping Children and Families Safe Act in 2003. While this did drastically drop the number of children in the foster care system, there are still plenty of critics to the current system and it continues to be a residual program instead of preventative, thus more attention and policy is required for the needs of abused and neglected children to be effectively addressed.
I personally view the lack of public policy addressing climate change to be the most important policy issue facing children today. Almost everyday there are new stories about the impacts climate change is already having, and scientists predict it will only get worse as more time passes, particularly if drastic action is not changed. For example, just today there were the news headlines that “more people are being killed by pollution globally than by the Covid-19 pandemic,” and the drought being experienced in the American West is the “worst in 12 centuries” (Democracy Now). This problem is only to get worse as children continue to grow up, thus it is vital that policies addressing climate change are implemented as soon as possible.
Reply2 Ashley 60 words
Working with abused and neglected children can be very hard at times, one runs into obstacles that seem impossible but it’s just going to take time and effort to resolve the issue or problem that is thrown at them. One of the first problems one will run into with abused and neglected children in many to all cases is getting the child to trust you. This is because “The family is still seen as the main caregiver for children”(Segal,2015,291) has broken that area of them. There is no way to solve this problem but there are ways to open up the child such as being caring and patient with them. Don’t push them to talk and watch for signs that they are getting uncomfortable. An issue that one might also run into is malnutrition, to skinny of kids, kids only eating small portions or trying to eat whatever they can get their hands on. A current attempt right now is food stamps and WIC, these give low-income families the ability to provide food for their families if they qualify. Finally, one might run into the issue of the child being in poor health. Medicaid and CHIP or Children’s Health Insurance Program help with cost expenses for children to get the care they need for little to no cost. These are just three problems or issues one might run into when working with abused and neglected children, it is also just a few programs out there that help families in need.
In my honest opinion, I think the policy issue that is most affecting children nowadays is drug and alcohol usage. I think this policy issue is important to because its growing by the day due to social environments, and social media. This policy issue is killing kids and injuring others.
Discussion 2 300 words
Is health care a social justice issue? Why or why not? Should the U.S. adopt a national health care policy? Discuss.
(Part 2) Discuss the tensions and controversies surrounding involuntary commitment of the mentally ill. What solutions/recommendations can you suggest? What are some of the social costs associated with poor mental health? Who should be responsible to pay for the costs of mental health care?
Reply 1 grady 60 words
Access to affordable and effective health care is vital for individuals to live fulfilled lives, and the fact that there millions of Americans still without health insurance makes it a social justice issue. Not having health insurance can lead to more serious, long term health issues as the cost to receive preventative care will seem prohibitive to those without insurance. This can lead to a lifelong burden of crushing medical debt, adding an additional cost to those already suffering without health insurance. With all of this in mind, I do believe that the U.S. should adopt a national health care policy. No other country has health insurance that is as expensive and complicated as here, and this is a fact that seems to be universally agreed upon by Americans of all political thought. When I took a trip to Costa Rica I talked to another tourist who consistently traveled there to get dental work as it was cheaper for them to travel out of the country to go to the dentist. This was an individual with the resources to travel internationally to get the medical care that they needed. Most Americans don’t have that privilege and as such are either paying too much for care or foregoing it all together, accepting the risk of future medical emergencies because the financial burden of care is seen as too great. Healthcare in America needs to be completely changed in order to make it more accessible for everyone.
Similar to the issues with dealing with child abuse and neglect, the individualism of America, with its priorities on individual responsibility and privacy, is the primary issue when dealing with the involuntary commitment of mentally ill individuals. Particularly following the shift towards deinstitutionalization in the 1970s, many of the mentally ill are forced to deal with their illnesses on their own due to “inadequate resources and a lack of community mental health centers (causing) many people to be left with little or no care” (Segal, 2016, p. 331). This can lead to grave consequences of individuals with mental illnesses as it can leave them unable to work or take care of themselves, leading to further health issues and worsening of their mental illness. A higher number of effective community mental health centers need to be built throughout the country to address this unmet need. On top of this, the cost of mental health care needs to be more effectively covered by health insurance companies to ensure that it is accessible to more people. If accessing mental health resources is seen as too expensive, then individuals won’t seek it out and continue to suffer without treatment.
Reply 2 Ashley 60 words
I dont belive that health care is a social justice issue becuase there is rules and regulations and if you don;t meet those rules and regulations then you dont get it. So, health care is equal and there is no need to justice it. If the system didn’t fallow those rules then yes it would be a social justice issue but they are required so they can’t. I don’t believe though that the U.S. shouldn’t because it dosen’t work. For health care to work there needs to be three things quality of care, doctor to pacinet ratio and money. And if you have a national policy or equal across the borad you can only meet two of them. So, to have a system that works you have to meet all three quotas.
“As of 2014, all state marketplace health insurance plans must have parity and people cannot be denied coverage because they live with a mental illness. This means all plans must cover mental health and substance use treatments on fair and equal terms to services offered for other medical conditions, and no one can be turned down.”(Segal,2015,332) Before this was passed there was tentions and controversies becuase only private insurances were paying for people’s treatment for thier mental illness. And before that it was the lie of deinstitutionalization within treatment centers. I really don’t have any recommendations or soultions now that things are better, all I can say is let time roll its course. I will say though it should be the responsibility of the medical insurances to be paying for these mental health care costs.
